1. What is meant by
the establishment?
What is meant by the ‘permissive society’?
What are liberal laws?
Explain how it could be said that society was NOT more liberal in the 1960s?
Describe
the
Profumo Affair
What effect did
the Profumo Affair
have on society?
Describe how protest movements grew in the 50s, 60s and 70s
Write a conclusion to ‘Was society more liberal in the 1960s?’
Describe the key environmental groups in the 60s and 70s
How were immigrants treated in the 50s and 60s?
How many more immigrants came to Britain in the 50s and 60s?
What evidence shows that immigrants had a negative experience in Britain?

2. Laws that give people more freedom
e.g Sexual Offences Act – allowed homosexual relations with men (although only in private)
Contraceptive Pill – allowed from 1961
The idea that society was more liberal in the late 50s and early 1960s.
People were allowed more freedom to make their own choices
e.g. Abortion Act
The small but powerful groups of people who run the country.
e.g. government, police, church etc
They tend to hold traditional views
Sensationalised by the papers. Seemed to mark the start of an era when the papers would write openly about sex
Showed that it was difficult for the establishment to cover things up any more
Made people trust politicians less
Harold Macmillan (Conservative PM lost the next election to Harold Wilson – Labour)
John Profumo – Secretary of State had affair with Christine Keeler – 19 yr old.
She was also rumoured to be involved with a Russian spy! (Security risk)
Profumo denied all involvement in House of Commons but was forced to admit the truth a few weeks later.
Profumo was forced to resign – Keeler went to jail for lying under oath
Mary Whitehouse’s ‘Clean Up TV’ campaign had a lot of support
Public opinion was divided on many issues e.g. abortion, divorce, death penalty
Not all Labour government supported the new laws. Harold Wilson privately didn’t want to pass the Sexual Offences Act
Still stigma attached to people who got divorced, had abortions etc
Many religious groups and older people opposed
Greenpeace
Friends of the Earth
Campaigned for protection of wildlife, anti-foxhunting, against pollution etc
For many the 1960s saw the end of ‘Victorian Values’ and the start of the permissive society. This tolerance has still continued today
BUT the liberal laws passed by the government did not necessarily change ordinary people’s views and many were still traditional.
Vietnam War – protests. Supported by young people, Quakers, many celebrities e.g. Vanessa Redgrave
Greenpeace – environmental group
CND – campaign for nuclear disarmament (against nuclear weapons)
March on Aldermaston 1958 – 4000 people demonstrated against nuclear weapons
No blacks, no dogs, no Irish signs
Notting Hill Riots 1958
Oswald Mosely- stood in election to ‘stop coloured immigration’
National Front 1970s – physical violence against Asians and Blacks. ‘Paki-bashing’
Politicians – some anti-immigrants e.g. Enoch Powell
1951 census – 100,000 commonwealth immigrants
By 1958 – this number had doubled.
More immigrants arrived in early 60s then in whole of the 20th century
Many seen as a novelty
Most people indifferent to them
As economy got worse late 1960s – prejudice grew
Often 1st to get fired, given poor housing, low wages
1970s – more open discrimination

3. How did the government try to restrict immigration in the 60s and 70s?
How did the government try to stop racism in the 60s and 70s?
What is meant by
assimilation?
What were the main political and economic issues to emerge in the 1970s?
Why was there an economic crisis in the 1970s?
Describe the Miner’s Strike
What was the EEC?
Why did Britain join the EEC?
What was decimalisation?
How did the government deal with the IRA?
Why was the government under pressure from nationalist groups in the 1970s?
What was Bloody Sunday?

4. Fitting in well to society
Race Relations Act
Discrimination in public places banned
1968 – this was extended to housing and employment
Race Relations Board – considered racism complaints. BUT hard to prove racism
1962 – Commonwealth Immigrants Act. Ended free immigration to Commonwealth citizens
1965 – Labour expanded on this and reduced numbers further.
1968 – Commonwealth Immigrants Act- could only enter Britain if at least 1 British born parent or grandparent
1972 – Lasted 6 weeks
Government forced to announce 3 day week to save energy supplies
Eventually miner’s given generous wage increase
Encouraged others to consider industrial action; showed unions still had power
War in middle east triggered oil crisis
Prices quadrupled
Queues at petrol stations
NUM (Miner’s Union) demanded huge pay rise
Economic problems – high inflation, price rises, economy not growing, unemployment over 1 million
Miner’s Strike
Winter of Discontent
Scotland and Wales wanting more independence
IRA
The move away from pounds, shilling and pence to new decimalised system we have today (pounds and pence)
Realised (after Suez crisis) that we were no longer a world power and needed Europe
Many of our former territories were gaining independence
Country was in an economic mess BUT European countries in EEC were doing well
European Economic Community
Also known as the Common Market
Major step in uniting European countries
Britain didn’t want to join at first.
1972 – Peaceful march in Londonderry
Few began to riot and throw stones
British soldiers opened fire killing 13 men and injuring 13 others
12 year enquiry! Finally laid blame on the soldiers
Increased IRA recruitment
Fuelled more violence
In England – National Front – putting pressure on government to stop non-White immigration
Scotland/Ireland – pushing for vote on devolution. This was given in 1979 but both voted no.
1972 = Direct Rule – British government took charge in Northern Ireland
Sunningdale Agreement – Plan for different groups to share power in IRA. Collapsed 1973
Internment – policy of locking up terror suspects without a trial. (Blamed for a rise in IRA membership!)

5. Describe 6 liberal laws that were passed in the 1960s
What were the Notting Hill Riots?
To what extent was Britain a multi-cultural society in the 1960s and 70s?
What is unilateral disarmament?
Why did more people migrate to Britain in the 50s and 60s?
What was the winter of discontent?
What was the ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech?
What were the Birmingham Pub bombings?
Why was Northern Ireland
a problem
for the
government
in the 1970s?
Who were the National Front?
Write a conclusion: how far was Britain a multi-cultural society by the 1970s?
How did literature
become more
liberal in the 1960s?

6. Campaign to get rid of nuclear weapons
YES
Children of 1st wave immigrants first British – spoke English etc
Notting Hill Carnival – celebrated other cultures
Food – more Chinese chip shops; Asian restaurants
Mosques built
More immigrants on TV NO
Some older immigrants struggled to understand British traditions eg wanted arranged marriages
Discrimination still
Racial prejudice – immigrants more likely
1958 – Teddy Boys began to attack Blacks
Race riots in Notting Hill (London)
Area of high immigration
9 white youths sentenced to prison
Black community claimed police had not taken their fears seriously
Abortion Act 1967
Availability of contraceptive pill – both gave women more control over their bodies.
Sexual Offences Act – homosexuality legal but ONLY in private and if over 21 yrs old
Divorce Reform Act
Murder Act 1965 (banned death penalty)
1968 – censorship in theatre abolished
1978 – 79
STRIKES by public sector workers – hospital porters, gravediggers in Liverpool, lorry drivers.
Wanted higher wages and better working conditions
Binmen = mountains of uncollected rubbish
Weather – snow and blizzards – some jobs were made impossible. Retail spending was poor and the economy worsened.
Government actively encouraged immigration to fill jobs (posters in Caribbean for NHS)
British Nationality Act – to recognise war time contribution of Commonwealth countries, all members of Commonwealth had free entry into Britain after the war
Britain seen as Land of Opportunity – plenty of jobs and high wages
Numbers increased as word spread back to family and friends from immigrants
Campaign to get rid of nuclear weapons
Serious violence between Protestants and Catholics
Harold Wilson sent British troops in to keep the peace
IRA – Catholic organisation wanted Irish independence
1974
21 people killed and 182 injured by IRA bomb in Great Britain.
Started a wave of anti-Irish feeling and attacks on the Irish in Britain.
Few days later, British government introduced the Prevention of Terrorism Act
After 16 years in prison the ‘Birmingham 6’ – accused of bombing were found not guilty.
Aggressive Anti-immigration speech
Enoch Powell – Conservative MP
‘Britons feel strangers in their own country’
Met with applause but Powell was sacked for this
Hero amongst wider world
Polls showed 75% of people supported him
Penguin books challenged the Obscene Publication’s Act
They were taken to court for publishing Lady Chatterley’s Lover
After they won – censorship of books relaxed e.g. Fanny Hill, The Joy of Sex
By 1979 Britain was a multi-cultural society, if only by virtue of the fact that so many cultures lived side by side.
BUT this did not mean that there was not unrest.
By the late 70s, it could be argued that race had replaced class as the biggest divide in society.
English group
Against non-white immigration
Wanted immigrants to be sent back to their own countries
Won 20% of votes in Leicester in General Election
Had links to neo-Nazi groups